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Author Topic: "The Pianist" premiere blunder at Loews Century Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-08-2002 09:22 PM                     Of course....Al Queda sabatoged it.......  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 12-09-2002 03:55 AM                        From my last two viewing experiences at that house, the place has really gone to hell. Caught Eyes Wide Shut there on opening night only to watch the whole thing run out of frame (about a foot or so of hard matte showing at the top of the screen). About a year later caught the re-release of Apocalypse Now there, also out of frame and with the Cineplex snipe spliced in tail first. Nice work guys. Haven't been back since. As Bill mentioned that place was one of LA's best screening venues. What a shame.  |  IP: Logged Christopher Seo Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 530 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-09-2002 02:19 PM                     I know a guy who used to work there among other Loew's Theatres. When he visited it recently the downstairs staff was asking him how to change xenon lamps. Apparently they had cancelled some shows because of a dead lamp that no one in the theatre knew how to change. If Loew's now expects ushers to change lamps in an ex-flagship theatre, it really has gone downhill. Not to mention the liability issues written all over that one.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-09-2002 05:18 PM                     I was just talking with a friend that works in the NY Publicity office from Focus Films. She was talking with her boss in Los Angeles and this is what happened. The main house at Century City had a major breaker problem to the rack. They tried to get it back up and running but it was a bigger problem than they though. They had a blown High Frequency driver and no replacement. The New York Premiere is Tuesday night at Loew's Lincoln Square. The Los Angeles Premiere has been rescheduled. The theatre was built in the early 70's. and is scheduled tobe torn down around the middle of 2003. Loew's is letting it die a slow death. Loew's no longer has a service contract with Local 150 at this location.  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-09-2002 05:59 PM                     Some of my experiences here: While it was STILL the Plitt Century Plaza: 1980: Divine Madness - film ended - curtains stayed open and lights stayed off for about a minute. 1983: A STAR IS BORN - two reels were out of order. It took about five minutes to rectify. The second reel hit the screen with a FLAT lens used. The intermision was botched, leaving the lights off for a while and curtains opened. The flat previews preceeding the film were shown with screen masks open to SCOPE. 1984: A PASSAGE TO INDIA - One projector was well focused, the other one was BADLY focused. it was never fixed. 1984: PROTOCOL - see above. Cineplex Odeon (after the remodel) LOA (1989 reissue) Curtains opened BEFORE the overture started (on BOTH parts 1 AND 2). The two projectors were BADLY unbalanced. One was very bright, the other much dimmer (A repeat visit did have both projectors equally bright and curtains staying closed during the music). 1990 SOUND OF MUSIC - Again, the picture brightness AND color temp were off on the changeover system. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT PART THREE (small theatre) - Curtains opened at beginning of overture, closed half a minute later and re-opened as they should for the begining of the picture. However, halfway through the DTS presentation, the sound reverted to analog. ARIA (small theatre) - The Dolby Stereo film played back in MONO. MY FAIR LADY (#2) - TOTALLY botched show. 15 minutes late starting. When it did, things were OK until intermission. After part one was over, the theatre remained in darkness for 10 minutes. Finally they got the lights on and curtains closed, only to start part two with the lights still on. The framing was way off (halfway in the image), and INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT FRAING, I guess they were trying to get the lights turned off instead and this took SEVERAL minutes. Only AFTER the lights got down did they re-frame the image. And then...during the last 15 minutes of the film, the center channel went bad, creating barely any sound at all (thankfully, this was a directional dialog mix, so we could get some SOUND. The result was not unlike the scene in SINGIN IN THE RAIN when a mike was placed inside a potted plant and the actress kept turning her head away from it during a scene). I complained to the doorman, who told me that the sound problem was due to the fact that it was no longer playing in that THX sound that the other auditorium has, so I decided wth that ignorance to just drop it. SHORT CUTS (theatre 1) Everthing was fine, until there was a changeover (most of the 70mm film was on a platter, the last two reels mounted on a large reel. The film was reversed, so the mag tracks played back BADLY muffled. Well, after a minute, they turned off the projector and tried to fix the SOUND system (which wasn't broken). Many know-it-alls in the audience were trying to convince the theatre that the DTS track (which this was not) was broken. Because they heard that reel change sound that many theatres that played mag tracks always had (that low momentary hum). Well, after 15 minutes, the reel projector was started up again and of course the sound was STILL garbled. Foertunately, the next scene was in a bar and a sign on the wall was reversed, so this was the clue the projectionist needed to put the film on the reel correctly (YET another LENGTHY WAIT. APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX (#1) - the last straw for me. those beautiful seats replaced with cheap plastic ones. Movietunes and no curtains. CLAROX hair commercials. AND the film was running through the projector with NO intermittent working (everything was just a blur 9or maybe the gate wasn't properly closed). Anyway they had to stop to fix THIS problem (15 minutes). Also, the famous framing problem with the print and all those white flashes. I DO have to add that this was the first of the revivede TECHNICOLOR prints that truly dazzled me, and that in MOST instances I could have been conned into believing I was watching a 70mm blow-up print. The projection was exceptionally bright, and the sound was superb.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-09-2002 06:10 PM                        Hmm...why would a breaker problem result in garbled sound? Something with the crossover, maybe?  |  IP: Logged Ken Layton Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1452 From: Olympia, Wash. USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-09-2002 11:42 PM                     Garbled sound could result from a blown output transistor in one of the amplifiers.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-09-2002 11:50 PM                     Nothing clearly indicates that garbled sound was the problem with the film sound, only the PA/speech sound. I suppose you can choose Occam's Razor though... --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-10-2002 12:46 AM                    It would still be instructive to know what specifically failed, whether caused by a breaker, weird transients or whatever. And was it really necessary to cancel the show? Could a blown C channel have been rerouted to LE or RE (or both, for balance)? Paul: That list of glitches is spread over 20 years. I don't know what inferrence can be drawn from that. Surely the best of operations can amass a few over 20 years time.  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-10-2002 01:02 AM                     true. However, it does represent about HALF of my experiences at this particular theatre. I guess I just expected a level of perfection at a top L.A. showcase. Many of these problems were projectionist error.  |  IP: Logged William Leland III Master Film Handler Posts: 336 From: Charleston, SC, Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-10-2002 09:07 AM                        Why would Loews want to premiere a movie at a theatre that they are slowly letting die? That makes no sense. The theatre apparently has had some problems in the past. Why risk a cancelled show? It looks bad on the company.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-10-2002 10:03 AM                     In Los Angeles the premiere houses that the studio's like to use are Chinese (Hollywood) Cinerama Dome (Hollywood) El Capitan (Hollywood) Century Plaza (Century City) Village (Westwood) National (Westwood) Bruin (Westwood) If it's a Universal movie they will premiere at Universal City Walk 18 Theatre. Century Plaza has a long list of premieres and good shows. Century Plaza has a better set-up for limos than the rest. It's easier to stage a premiere there. But the leases for the theatres are up. ABC had a screening room next door. They moved everyone over to Burbank. Like what they did here in New York with a few of the theatres they were dropping. They put no money or VERY little money for the upkeep of the houses. Because next year the theatres will be torn down to make space for a new office building. Two years ago Loew's had limit service contract with Local 150. Today the theatre is run by management. This theatre being only a 4 plex and a AMC 14 plex is two blocks away. Back in the 80's when Cineplex was buying theatres in LA. Garth spent alot of money getting the Century Plaza, Odeon, Showcase, Fairfax, Marina Del Rey, Broadway. The biggest money loser was the Odeon in Westwood. It was a single screen that could NEVER make money, unless you charged $100 a ticket. The lease was so high for that theatre. (All the other chain got into a bidding world for the house) But Century Plaza was the West Coast Flagship for Cineplex. The theatre performed well over the years. OK it had a few poor screenings, in all the Century Plaza was one of my favorite houses to work.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-10-2002 10:26 AM                    William, it's the studio that asks to rent out a particular theatre. I would presume (but do not know) that for a major premiere there would be someone on duty in the booth besides a manager / operator. Wasn't this theatre chopped up some years back or am I thinking of some other venue? Where was the PCM digital Fantasia shown? I think it's also unfair to suggest that the theatre's lame duck status would cause them to skimp on tech maintenance. Sure, they're not going to reseat, recarpet or make tech upgrades at this point. But much of the projection and sound gear (perhaps excepting 70mm related gear) will find its way into new builds or be retained as parts sources for existing theatres. There is nothing to be gained by letting it go to seed, especially at a high profile venue like that.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-10-2002 10:53 AM                     Steve Yes, the studio rents the theatre. The studios like the Village, Century Plaza, Chinese, National. It all depends on the size. In Westwood the Village is the one. On big premieres they rent the Village and the Bruin (They are across the street from each other). But what makes the Century Plaza more special is you have two large houses and two small houses in one building. So it easier to stage a premiere. On the premieres that I have worked we would have a tech run through in the morning. With the regular operator and Dolby tech. For the show we would have the same. For the Century Plaza on a big show we would have all 4 screens running. So we would have 2 studio projectionists and 4 regular projectionists plus our Dolby Tech. Whats funny if it was a double system show, we would have 3 projectionists and a studio projectionist plus the Dolby Tech. That's only for one screen. The reason for the three projectionists is (one for picture, one for the dummy, one for the fader). The only person that really works is the picture guy. The dummy & fader guys just sits there and drinks coffee till they have to wrap everything up. All guys would get a studio call. You are right about that PCM show when it was known as the Plitt Century Plaza. That's where I first saw "Star Wars" in 70MM (What a show !) The old number 2 house is the big house now (800 seats), they cut the old #1 into three houses. Whats funny is I'm running "The Pianist" right now, while doing this email  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-10-2002 11:54 AM                     The ABC Century City theatre opened in 1972 with theatre 2 (1424 seats - 70mm 6-Track Stereo)showing Cabaret and Theatre 1 (800 seats) with Brian's Song. Plitt (who was head of ABC Theatres) bought out the chain sometiome later and the theatre became known as the plitt Century Plaza Theatres. Theatre 1 was upgraded for 70mm 6 Track Dolby in 1978 for an added engagement of Close Encounters of the Third Kind from Westwood. Theatre 2 had HPS 4000 installed in 1984 and was running it with the 70mm engagegement of he Razor's Edge. The large theatre #2 had a mezzanie level and this was split into the two small theatres, making over screen #2 into 2, 3, 4. Cineplex Odeon did the splitting and entire make-over (THX was added to screen #1 then). The original look was gone. #1 had red side curtains and gold screen curtains. #2 had the reverse. #2 also had extremely comfortable rocking chairs on the main floor. #1 had the sam type of seats, but didn't rock. CO did a completely glitzed up remodel with accoustical paneling replacing the side drapes. Seats were recovered in a rich velor covering. the orignal curved screens replaced by flat ones.  |  IP: Logged

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